By curious coincidence, that's roughly the age at which I started transmitting the condescending tone.

Dammit, now someone's gonna have to go through the trouble of comm-ing bt all over again....

I should go to bed. Instead of posting this:

The person behind the Save the Tree Octopus! YouTube channel has made an exciting find -- actual video of Octopus paxarbolis in the wild:

Tree Octopus Caught On Tape! (And A Poem)

...

Speaking of the Crystal Palace's octopus, here's an 1872 ode to it written by Arthur Clement Hilton (under the pen-name "Algernon Charles Sin-burn") in parody of Swinburne's "Dolores":

The poem is pretty good too....

More octopusnews:

Octopus opens valve, floods Santa Monica aquarium

Huh. So The Simpsons has been renewed for two more seasons which means it will break the record of 20 seasons held by Gunsmoke.

But Law and Order has been on for nineteen seasons, so could conceivably overtake it if the Simpsons went off the air.

And both shows are in syndication incessantly.

It just seems weird that in these days of market fragmentation that the longevity record will be broken by two largely contemporaneous, but vastly dissimilar shows.

sarameg, the house you linked to above is listed in its last assessment record as having 840 sq/ft of living space.

If you have a certain piece or pieces of furniture you need to take with you, measure them before you go -- they may rule places out (this happened with our vintage dining room table, that we weren't going to get rid of). Also, you'll be surprised at how many places you walk into and think, "there's nothing wrong here, but I can't picture myself in this space."

sarameg, the house you linked to above is listed in its last assessment record as having 840 sq/ft of living space.

Wow. That house could be almost as long as three football fields, if it were one story and one foot wide inside.

Random photo ' the day: [link]

More than 1,500 inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Centre perform Michael Jackson's Thriller dance in celebration of a religious festival in Cebu City central Philippines.

This is great: xkcd takes on The Princess Bride...

Westley's a Dick

Is it just me, or is this an incredibly stupid thing the UN just passed?

UN anti-blasphemy measures have sinister goals, observers say

UNITED NATIONS - Islamic countries Monday won United Nations backing for an anti-blasphemy measure Canada and other Western critics say risks being used to limit freedom of speech.

Combating Defamation of Religions passed 85–50 with 42 abstentions in a key UN General Assembly committee, and will enter into the international record after an expected rubber stamp by the plenary later in the year.

But while the draft’s sponsors say it and earlier similar measures are aimed at preventing violence against worshippers regardless of religion, religious tolerance advocates warn the resolutions are being accumulated for a more sinister goal.

“It provides international cover for domestic anti-blasphemy laws, and there are a number of people who are in prison today because they have been accused of committing blasphemy,” said Bennett Graham, international program director with the Becket Fund, a think tank aimed at promoting religious liberty.

“Those arrests are made legitimate by the UN body’s (effective) stamp of approval.”

Passage of the resolution is part of a 10-year action plan the 57-state Organization of Islamic Conference launched in 2005 to ensure “renaissance” of the “Muslim Ummah” or community.

While the current resolution is non-binding, Pakistan’s Ambassador Masood Khan reminded the UN’s Human Rights Council this year that the OIC ultimately seeks a “new instrument or convention” on the issue. Such a measure would impose its terms on signatory states.

...

The 2008 draft “underscores the need to combat defamation of religions, and incitement to religious hatred in general, by strategizing and harmonizing actions at the local, national regional and international levels.”

It also laments “Islam is frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism.”

But Western democracies argue that a religion can’t enjoy protection from criticism because that would require a judicial ruling that its teachings are the “truth.”

“Defamation carries a particular legal meaning and application in domestic systems that makes the term wholly unsuitable in the context of religions,” says the U.S. government in a response on the issue to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

I've been hearing about this stuff for a while now, and it just makes me really angry.

Looks like I'm rescheduling house hunting. Realtor just emailed me to tell me she came down with something Monday night and is still feeling vile. I hope I didn't infect her, but I probably did. I think this stuff started Monday.